OPENING WITH PRAYER

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 281, 22 August 1940, Page 7

OPENING WITH PRAYER

Wellington Education Board Meetings

SUGGESTED FOR SCHOOLS

Meetings of the Wellington Education Board will in future be opened with prayer. This procedure was inaugurated at yesterday’s meeting, when board members and the staff recited the Lord’s Prayer. A motion that tills bo done was moved by Colonel T. W. McDonald. The British Empire was out to defend Christianity, he said, and for that objective many lives had already been sacrificed. The head of the Empire had requested prayers for victory and the board would be setting a very fine example if it opened its proceedings with prayer at every meeting in the meantime. All members of the staff should be invited to be present. The motion was seconded by Mr. .1. J. Clark and carried unanimously. The chairman. Mr. W. V. Dyer, suggested that instead of the Lord’s Prayer, a special prayer could be said, similar to that used at the opening of Parliament. Mr. C. H. W. Nicholls: Couldn’t we go a step further by requesting schools once a week to do what we are doing? Colonel McDonald said he intended to give notice of motion on that subject.

Mr. Nicholls: We have reached a stage in the history of the British Empire when we must come down to earth. 1 have always opposed religious instruction in schools, but I think this is a time when prayers should be said in the schools. Mr. Dyer then led the members of the board and the staff in reciting the Lord’s Brayer. Colonel McDonald later gave notice of his intention to move nt the next meeting “that in future all schools in the Wellington Education Board district lie opened each morning with the Lord's Prayer, subject to the approval of the school committee concerned.”